Is epilepsy inherited? How and when?
• Genetics is “the study of heredity”
• This section will therefore be about the genetics of epilepsy
• Epilepsy frequently does have a genetic basis
• Hundreds of inherited conditions have seizures as a feature
- This is not surprising because seizures are a hallmark of neuronal (brain cell) dysfunction. Most of these conditions are rare and associated with other neurologic abnormalities like severe learning disabilities.
- Only a few of these conditions have seizures as their ONLY feature
• Inherited syndromes with epilepsy as their only feature are called “idiopathic”.
• Researchers have identified abnormal genes for many of these syndromes
• These syndromes are very rare.